ASK Cub Reporter, 02.22.2013, Version- A Day Late But Better Than Ever

Hello, sorry I didnt know who else to ask, so maybe you know. Will the carisma M10DT volkswagon beetle desert edition come to the U.S? I sure hope so, it really looks sick.Thanks for your time, oh I love your website. JA Sugar

Cubby– Hey what’s up Sugar?

The Carisma crew has introduced a bunch of new trucks lately, all of them look like prime bashing mobiles and we have been getting a bunch of emails about them. Back in the day, Carisma was distributed by Horizon here in the States, but not any longer. We’ve heard some rumors of Carisma possibly getting picked up by another distributor here in the states, but as of right now they’ve yet to work out a deal. To boil it down, if you want a Carisma product you’ll have to buy it from overseas. This might be expensive (and a huge PITA), but you will instantly be the coolest guy at your bash spot. If you do pick one up send us some pics.

Hi Cubby my name is Matt got a little problem and thought you might be able to help. I just got a hot bodies dirt demon for 99 bucks and it ran good for about a week and then the trans went to crap. I was wondering if you had any thoughts on replacing the hole trans with something ells being as they do not make the spur gear and more no one does it sucks . If you got any thoughts its a god rc just bad that they do not make the 4wd trans any more. All the help will be helpful . Matt H.

Cubby– Yo what’s up Matt? That HB Dirt Demon was a cool monster truck back in the day. And… that’s exactly the problem, it’s an old platform.

I haven’t dug into it, so I have no idea what other spur gear might work or which tranny might drop in. The reason why I haven’t researched it is because even if you can find another tranny to drop in, that doesn’t really “fix” your problem. What if you break an a-arm? Or a hub carrier? If you drive your truck at all you are going to break other parts sooner or later.

So.. what I’m going to recommend is two routes for you. The first route is the cheap one. If you have a GOOD hobby shop near you, take your truck in. A good hobby shop will look through their parts supply and figure out what they have in stock that can be used to get your Dirt Demon back up to speed.

The second route is a bit more expensive but it’s the one I would take if I really liked an older platform vehicle. Search around on eBay, Craigslist, and the forums, then buy any complete Dirt Demon you can get your hands on. If you stockpile a couple of complete trucks you should be dialed for at least a couple of years.

I bought a HPI 2WD Electric Blitz for myself and my son.. Both trucks have the same problem… Press full throttle forward and sometimes no response.. battery is fully charged and I believe to have set up the truck correctly.. I must be missing something??? Please help!!! Randy

Cubby– Thanks for shoot’n us an email Randy, make sure to send Brian your snail mail so we can hook ya up with some stickers to plaster all over your Blitz’s.

I really like the HPI Blitz. It drives well and the RTR version can take some serious abuse. Sucks to hear you are having a problem with yours but that is part of the “fun” of our hobby.

If both your trucks have the same problem it sounds like you may not have calibrated the transmitters to the speed controllers properly. What this involves is having the speed control “learn” where full throttle, full brake, and neutral is from your transmitters. Read your manual for exact instructions, but this typically involves turning on your radio, then turning on your truck, then going from full throttle to full brake and then to neutral in the first couple of seconds the speedo is on. Depending on the speedo, you might have to press a programming button to accomplish this task.

If it isn’t a calibration issue then it might simply be there is a lot of lag/delay between reverse and forward. On some speedo’s you can instantly go from reverse to full forward, on other brands it might take a couple seconds. It’s been several years since I have driven a stock brushed Blitz, I can’t recall off the top of my head if the Blitz had a bunch of lag/delay or not.

That’s it for this week folks, shoot me your questions, smack talk, or whatever else is on your mind to Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com. If your question makes the big-time you get free stickers, if I pick yours as “letter of the month” we hook you up with a BSRC t-shirt.